A Library Grows in Manila Via the BBC: If you put all the books you own on the street outside your house, you might expect them to disappear in a trice. But one man in Manila tried it - and found that his collection grew. Hernando Guanlao is a sprightly man in his early 60s, with one abiding passion - books. They’re his pride and joy, which is just as well because, whether he likes it or not, they seem to be taking over his house. Guanlao, known by his nickname Nanie, has set up an informal library outside his home in central Manila, to encourage his local community to share his joy of reading. The idea is simple. Readers can take as many books as they want, for as long as they want - even permanently. As Guanlao says: “The only rule is that there are no rules.” It’s a policy you might assume would end very quickly - with Guanlao having no books at all. But in fact, in the 12 years he’s been running his library - or, in his words, his book club - he’s found that his collection has grown rather than diminished, as more and more people donate to the cause. “It seems to me that the books are speaking to me. That’s why it multiplies like that,” he says with a smile. “The books are telling me they want to be read… they want to be passed around.” BBC, The man who turned his home into a public library.

A Library Grows in Manila

Via the BBC:

If you put all the books you own on the street outside your house, you might expect them to disappear in a trice. But one man in Manila tried it - and found that his collection grew.

Hernando Guanlao is a sprightly man in his early 60s, with one abiding passion - books.

They’re his pride and joy, which is just as well because, whether he likes it or not, they seem to be taking over his house.

Guanlao, known by his nickname Nanie, has set up an informal library outside his home in central Manila, to encourage his local community to share his joy of reading.

The idea is simple. Readers can take as many books as they want, for as long as they want - even permanently. As Guanlao says: “The only rule is that there are no rules.”

It’s a policy you might assume would end very quickly - with Guanlao having no books at all.

But in fact, in the 12 years he’s been running his library - or, in his words, his book club - he’s found that his collection has grown rather than diminished, as more and more people donate to the cause.

“It seems to me that the books are speaking to me. That’s why it multiplies like that,” he says with a smile. “The books are telling me they want to be read… they want to be passed around.”

BBC, The man who turned his home into a public library.

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    This is called social capital - people’s relationships, community building. And social capital might be one of our most...
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    Well, I am currently a librarian after all.
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    YES! I should see this when I get back home.

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